Monthly Archives: January 2018

Batman: Arkham Origins was a pleasant surprise. I had heard mixed things about the game, especially since it was made by a different developer. Some critiqued how scaled down it felt from Batman: Arkham City or the lack of marquee villains, like the Scarecrow or Poison Ivy. What I found, instead, is a game that was closer to what I liked about Batman: Arkham Asylum, both is size and tone.

Arkham Asylum had a focused story with a dark atmosphere, that also made the player feel claustrophobic. Batman wasn’t trapped per se, but he had to go deeper into the worst place in the world, sort of like the aggressively lonely catacombs found in Tomb Raider Anniversary. With it’s mixture of eclectic villains, crumbling architecture and plot twists, Arkham Asylum had all the makings of a classic Batman story, in any medium.

I found Batman: Arkham City to be bloated and nowhere near as intriguing as the first game and I thought I was done with the series. But, Arkham Origins brought the scale back and refocused the story, with villains that work well in the same plot. The smaller scale of Gotham City means less flapping around with no purpose. The streets themselves are emptier than in Arkham City, but the game is set during Christmas Eve and it helps contribute to the feeling of being alone on the holiday. In fact, I played it over the Christmas season for that reason, as the snow and frequent use of Christmas tunes makes this game one of the best holiday titles out there. Combine this with Batman Returns and you have a pretty great Christmas lined up!

The stealth, gadgets and combat all function as they have in previous games. Detective mode is a bit dull, as it has been throughout the series. But all the different gameplay elements work together to make something easy to play and enjoy. I’m not great at big fights in the game, but I can feel great with the mechanics. And, I’m left to wonder why Batman doesn’t have those electric gloves all the time.

I know not everyone enjoyed this entry in the series, but I found it to be my second favorite of the three I’ve played. It has real boss fights against villains I was happy to see, such as Firefly, Deathstroke and Deadshot. Heck, this game even reminded me of why Bane is such a great foe for Batman, as the character and his troupes are accurately translated from the comics, much better than in The Dark Knight Rises. Plus, I’m a big sucker for a strong Batman/Joker conversation.

In fact, I enjoyed this prequel so much, I finally purchased Batman: Arkham Knight, a title I have been avoiding due to my lackluster response to Arkham City and the PC port in general. We’ll see how that fares to my disdain of large open worlds, as Arkham Origins reminds me of how much I prefer focused, story driven games. And the viewers that stopped by all seemed to have a soft spot for this title, many of them feeling this game get’s underrated. I’m right there with them now.

Second quick update as I try to get current with the episodes on the blog.

We talk about book clubs, the benefits and such. What books the library has on the schedule and what have been favorite reads in past clubs. Mine, personally, is Station Eleven. I was worried I wasn’t going to want to talk about that book, because I loved it and I didn’t want to hear any critiques. Luckily, the club was a great discussion and I think I like the book even more having done it. Join a book club!

You can follow us on Soundcloud, Youtube or iTunes and even Twitter! I’m sure there’s another, cool platform I’m forgetting but you can follow us on that too!

In which we really talk about the end of the year and books we read in 2017. Goodreads helps us see the longest books we tackled, the books we most enjoyed, disliked and if we’re ready to get reading in 2018!

You can follow us on Soundcloud, Youtube or iTunes and even Twitter! I’m sure there’s another, cool platform I’m forgetting but you can follow us on that too!

I skipped reviewing Sword of Destiny for a few reasons. First, it’s similar to The Last Wish and everything I said about that book still stands for the sequel. It’s still a collection of short stories that are a bit more structured than the first book, in that each short story revolves around Yennifer in some way or another. The second reason I didn’t give that book a full review is because I went straight into the Blood of Elves. It was late and I finished Sword of Destiny and, without sleeping or taking a break, I opened the first chapter of the next book.

Besides the fact that the previous books were great reads, I was also curious as to how Andrzej Sapkowski would do writing The Witcher books in novel form. The character of Geralt works well in short form, with his different adventures and meeting new people around Sapkowski’s well-thought out world.

What I found is that Sapkowski didn’t change format entirely. Blood of Elves is a novel, yes, but the chapters are written akin to his short stories, with time gaps between them and not much thematically shared. Doing so allows for longer, more intimate looks into the world and Geralt, but it doesn’t create a strong continuing narrative or sense of plot. In fact, having read it all, I’m still not entirely sure where it was all going other than some people are after Geralt’s adopted daughter, Ciri.

In some ways, tries to be both a collection and a novel and both formats suffer for it. Without the connective tissue between chapters, it comes across as if the reader has missed key information between them. Without the varying adventures, the single plot thread shows it’s weakness. While I was hooked at the opening chapter with Dandelion and the training of Ciri, the book lost me quickly after that.

The previous books were interesting because of their world building, yes, but it was also how Sapkowski took classic fairy tales and myths and played around with them. The world is interesting and well-realized, but switching gears to focus on the political side of things doesn’t make for the most entertaining read.

The time we spend with Ciri and her training is great, but that’s because it’s focused and dabbles in that monster hunter lore. I wanted to see more of Geralt and Ciri together, training and going on adventures. That’s not what I got and I wasn’t convinced that what I was reading was necessarily better than that, either. I’m glad I read the previous books, because Blood of Elves relies heavily on the character connections that were introduced and explored beforehand. Alone, I don’t know if I would have liked the book much at all.

I will be reading the rest of these books, but the steam I had has been lost for the moment.

2008’s Prince of Persia is no Sands of Time, but, despite that grievous flaw, it’s still a fun game.

I know it has simple controls compared to previous games and that it doesn’t require the amount of “skill” some might desire, but, that doesn’t stop it from being enjoyable. Wall running, leaping, sliding and climbing are all solid and the character animations make everything seem smooth. It’s more of a ride than a full-blown game, but it’s quite the ride. Elika is a nice contribution to this game. I like her character and her powers make for some interesting free-running and a good excuse for the no “lives” system.

The graphics, by the way, are so, so pretty. The cel-shaded style allows for crisp colors and well drawn environments. One of the first things I did when I started playing was just stop and take in how beautiful the world looks inside this game. I just wanted to drink it all in. Then, to my surprise, the whole world falls to darkness and is corrupted with goo that looks like Venom in symbiote form.

It’s satisfying to go to new lands, battle the corruption and clean it out. Watching everything return to color and sunlight makes the game have a sense of progress, something I haven’t seen since Metroid Prime. It was calming to run around a cleansed level and collect orbs. Really, the game is fun to play because it’s so nice to look at.

And then, as the game goes on, you stop needing orbs. Once you don’t need orbs, you don’t need to spend time in cleansed areas and you go straight to another corrupted area and soon you realize the game has become less of a graphical joy and, somehow, less fun to play.

The final boss is exciting, the ending is frustrating and I never had a chance to play the DLC epilogue because it was never released for PC. I enjoyed my time with the game, think it’s worth checking out, but probably won’t come back to it, especially with Sands of Time out there.

We talk the end of year! 2017 is done! It’s over! Let’s hold hands and just get through 2018! But, first, a look back! We look at the best selling books of 2017! Did you read any of them? I’m never up-to-date on the current books, my reading list is too long!

You can follow us on Soundcloud, Youtube or iTunes and even Twitter! I’m sure there’s another, cool platform I’m forgetting but you can follow us on that too!

We talk Christmas movies, shows, books, ect. We look at Bookbub’s Christmas book picks of 2017, and have fun being mean to the Twilight Before Christmas by Christine Feehan. We joke because we’re glad people are reading!

You can follow us on Soundcloud, Youtube or iTunes and even Twitter! I’m sure there’s another, cool platform I’m forgetting but you can follow us on that too!